Historically, postage meters have been mechanical and electromechanical devices that: maintain through mechanical or "electronic registers" (postal security devices) an account of all postage printed and the remaining balance of prepaid postage; and print postage postmarks (indicia) that are accepted by the postal service as evidence of the prepayment of postage.
Soon, small business mailers may be able to use their desktop computer (personal computer) and printer to apply postage directly onto envelopes or labels while applying an address. The United States Postal Service Engineering Center recently published a notice of proposed specification that may accomplish the foregoing. The title of the specification is Information-Based Indicia Program Postal Security Device Specification, dated Jun. 13, 1996. The Information-Based Indicia Program specification includes both proposed specifications for the new indicium and proposed specifications for a postal security device (PSD). The proposed Information-Based Indicia (IBI) consists of a two-dimensional bar code containing hundreds of bytes of information about the mail piece and certain human and machine readable information. The indicium includes a digital signature to preclude the forgery of indicia by unauthorized parties. The postal security device is a unique security device that provides a cryptographic digital signature to the indicium and performs the function of postage meter registers.
Current United States Postal Service IBI specifications require a Facing Identification Mark (FIM) to be part of the IBI indicia so that the USPS Advanced Facer Canceller may detect the presence of an IBI mail piece so as to sort the mail piece properly. In the United States, the FIM is a pattern of vertical bars printed in the upper right portion of the mail piece, to the left of the indicia. A FIM pattern is essentially a nine bit code consisting of bars and no bar place holders. The presence of a bar can be considered a binary one "1" and the absence of a bar a binary "0". Thus, as currently specified, the United States Postal Service FIM is large, taking up approximately 20% of the proposed IBI indicia.
Personal computer printers have difficulty in reliably printing the FIM portion of the IBI indicia. The reason for the foregoing is that the FIM is located near the top edge of the envelope and it is difficult for personal computer printers to print near the top edge of the envelopes. Furthermore, the FIM carries low information density when compared to other data elements of an IBI indicia. A disadvantage of the prior art is that a FIM wastes a large amount of envelope space.
Another disadvantage of the prior art is that it is difficult for personal computer printers to print an IBI indicia in proper registration to a preprinted FIM.
For many years, the United States Postal Service and other Postal Services have been selling stamps that are printed with phosphorescent inks. The Postal Services also require and accept postal indicia that have been printed by a postage meter that uses fluorescent inks. Current fluorescent inks that are used in postage meters, approved by the United States Postal Service, contain a fluorescent ink that is excited by a 254 nm ultraviolet light source that emits a fluorescent light in the orange to red region of the visible spectrum between 580 to 650 nm.
Typically, luminescence will become visible to the naked eye when stimulated or excited by suitable radiation. Fluorescent inks and phosphorescent inks are types of luminescent inks. The emission of light from a fluorescent ink is caused by the absorption of energy (light or electromagnetic radiation) into the inks molecules, causing the ink molecules to be in an excited state and to emit or be fluorescent. The fluorescence ceases abruptly when the energy source is removed. The emission of light from a phosphorescent ink will persist for a time interval after the energy source has been removed.
Mail sorting equipment, like the Advanced Facer Cancelling System manufactured by Simmons Electrocom, is being used at postal incoming mail processing stations to detect, cancel and then sort, using the phosphorescent stamps that have been affixed to mail pieces. These systems also check whether or not the postal indicia affixed to mail pieces were affixed by an authorized postal meter, i.e., whether or not the indicia is fluorescent. The United States Postal Service Advanced Facer Canceller System faces (arranges mail so all addresses and indicia are facing the same way), cancels the stamps affixed to mail pieces and then sorts letter mail into three mail streams: pre-bar coded letters; OCR readable (typed/machine imprinted) letters, and hand written or script letters. The IBI FIM may be detected and segregated into a fourth stream of mail.